Japanese Technology from the Future Friday!

This week it's Seiko’s 100-year wristwatch anniversary celebrated with huge sales in India, Japanese & American cancer killers hook up, and Japan and Qatar are going to get all kindsa cozy with the desalination, wastewater treatment, stadium building, and mass-transit tech.

• • •

Welcome to Japanese Technology from the Future Friday!

It’s already Friday west of the international dateline – here in Japan, it’s totally the future. The weekly JTFF is our somewhat technosnarky coverage of 2-5 particularly important, specifically Japan-related tech stories. Get yourself hip to the micro & macro that went down while North America was sleeping – check in with Akihabara News every Friday morning and BOOM! Ahead of the game, you win.

:: JTFF – September 6, 2013 ::

• One Hundred Years Later, Seiko is Selling Watches; Asia & SE Asia is a Good Place for ThatMost likely to the befuddlement and derision of the pocketwatch brigade, a century ago this year, 122 year-old Seiko released its first wristwatch. One hundred years later, Seiko’s still going strong, and the bulk of its sales remain on this side of the planet - a notable 20% of its gear is moved in the United States alone, however. The Economic Times has a brief, insightful interview with the head of Seiko India, where the J-company invested full-force back in 2007 and has since seen a seven-fold sales increase. Given India’s population, that’s probably like, you know, a lot of watches - and a lot of rupees for Seiko.[SEIKO SELLS LOTS OF STUFF IN ASIA & SE ASIA - ECONOMIC TIMES]

• Japanese Cancer Hunters Team Up with American Cancer Hunters“Nuclear medicine” is a term whose meaning is like 500 times more positive than the mental image it conjures, and the news of industry-leading firms reaching across the Pacific to share tech and collaborate on diagnostic and treatment procedures is quite welcome. Indiana-based Endocyte, Inc. and Tokyo-based Nihon Medi-Physics (NMP) have penned an agreement to mutually license each other’s technology and know-how. Funny that the JTFF is going all the way to Indiana for this piece of J-news. Oh, and “Medi-Physics” is a really cool name for a business. Die, cancer, die![CANCER NEMESES TEAM UP - INSIDE INDIANA BUSINESS]

• Japan: Endless Supply of Water & Water-Related Tech; Qatar: Not So Much - Let’s Share!In preparation for the 2022 World Cup to be held there, Japan’s just sealed a deal to assist Qatar with building up their desalination and wastewater treatment facilities, and they’ll also offer assistance (read: sell) with the construction of stadiums and public transportation. Tons of hooligans, oops we mean soccer fans, will be happy to have fluid to drink, a place to drink it, a place to put what comes out later, and a way to get to and from the places where they'll do that stuff. [JAPAN AND QATAR TO DESALINATE & FLUSH TOGETHER - AQUANOW VIA OOSKA]